City Spy: Ritzy strikers’ social media campaign hits a nerve at Cineworld

Just what impact has the four-month Living Wage pay dispute at the Ritzy cinema in Brixton had on parent company Picturehouse and ultimate owner Cineworld?

The listed group’s latest half-year results make no mention of the row, which has seen Ritzy staff go on strike a dozen times in their fight for the London Living Wage of £8.80 an hour. Indeed, box-office revenues in the period rose 6.3% to £10.5 million.

But there is a sign in the results that Cineworld has woken up to the PR disaster it inflicted on itself by blocking the Living Wage. Under “risks and uncertainties”, the company has added a new clause, called “Impact of Lobbying Groups and Social Media”.

The results statement goes on to explain: “Lobbying groups and people using social media have the ability to influence public opinion in ways which may be detrimental to the Group affecting brand perception and potentially causing a decline in admissions.”

That looks like an acknowledgement of the success of the Ritzy Living Wage campaign, backed by union Bectu, which culminated in Monty Python star Terry Jones calling on his legion of Twitter followers to boycott the Ritzy’s live screening of his comedy troupe’s O2 show last month.

Picturehouse came up with a peace deal within days, offering to pay £8.80 an hour by September 2015, although it won’t commit to the Living Wage itself. Bectu members are set to vote on the pay offer by August 26.

Telling ticker picker

Bank chiefs across the US must be kicking themselves for not having thought of it first. When Florida-based C1 Financial floated in New York last week, what ticker did it choose for its listing? BNK. How wonderfully simple.

Sky man stumped by cricket claim

A solid, balanced piece in the Guardian about the real football rivalry this season, Sky versus BT.

Guardian hack Simon Goodley interviews Sky Sports boss Barney Francis and gives him fair play. But what’s this down at the end? “These are tiny gripes, but they do occasionally grate, especially when the slick Sky marketing people overshoot.

"After winding up the discussion on the next Premier League auction, Francis segued as smoothly as one of his presenters to his boyhood cricket career, trumpeting that he played for Nottinghamshire under-15s. Really? Stalwarts of that team have no recollection of him. Luckily for Sky Sports subscribers, his television service is more memorable.”

Might Francis have been exaggerating about his sports skills just to show off to a journalist? Bad luck for the Sky man that Simon Goodley knows every cricketer in Nottingham under the age of 50.

Begley potters in for a City property spell

Hack-turned-PR man Charles Begley is the face of the City & Westminster Property Association after taking over as executive director from Jace Tyrrell, who returns to the New West End Company.

It wasn’t in the press release but Begley is perhaps better-known from his News of the World days as “Harry Potter correspondent” when he walked out after being asked to dress up as the boy wizard a day after the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers. Let’s hope he casts a spell over the London property scene.

Special Relationship alive and kicking

The so-called Special Relationship is alive and kicking, for London’s small businesses at least. The US is the most popular export destination for the capital’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), according to research by Barclays Business.

Just over half of the SMEs questioned by the bank that export abroad do so to the States, with the eurozone’s twin economic engines France and Germany coming in joint second place with 45%.